Under the second Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has radically altered its priorities. Whereas it previously championed climate spending legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), its new leadership, headed by Administrator Lee Zeldin, promptly moved to roll back implementation of IRA programs. Indeed, as part of those […]
Vincent Nolette
25 posts
Today, the Sabin Center published a new white paper, The Impact of New York’s 2026 Climate Law Retreat. The paper examines the implications of the State’s 2026 Amendments to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), including how the changes will affect planning, permitting, implementation, and litigation. Over the last […]
On May 26, as part of the FY 2026-27 budget, New York State enacted significant revisions to its 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA or Act). The amendments amount to a substantial rollback of the Act’s ambition. For the last seven years, the Act has served as the […]
The proliferation of data centers across the United States represents new “loads” (i.e., sources of demand) on the electrical grid. Data centers require enormous amounts of energy to power and cool their computing systems that operate continuously or near-continuously. To meet this demand, new energy infrastructure—both generation and transmission—will need […]
Data center development and its climate, environmental, and energy impacts have emerged as a central and hotly debated issue facing local governments in 2026. Various studies have explored, among other things, the large amounts of land required for data centers; their immense use of energy and water ; their greenhouse gas […]
Compounding their significant climate and environmental harms, fossil fuels are also volatile commodities. In 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted the supply of natural gas, causing prices to spike. More recently, the United States’ war on Iran resulted in the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most […]
The number of court decisions upholding building decarbonization laws against federal preemption challenges is growing. After the Ninth Circuit’s decision in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley (Berkeley), building decarbonization laws effectively prohibiting fossil-fuel appliances covered by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA) appeared to be […]
Update: On March 9th, the D.C. Circuit ordered the parties to file simultaneous supplemental briefs addressing “whether, in light of Section 60002 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the Appellees’ claim that violations of the IRA and/or the constitution provide a basis for a preliminary injunction “continues to provide a […]